Playing the Field

    This past month I have jumped from one activity to another.I will count or list backwards. Last night Joe wanted a "business" card. I had seen an ad on Facebook for 500 cards, $9 or so, from Vista Print that makes handsome cards for artists. I had fun putting one together for Joe and then decided to have a professional one for my mini traveling art show... not for selling but to send people to my website or blog. I decided to make my card two-sided with info on the front and a bigger painting filling the other side. I chose a stiffer paper and a few other amenities that made the purchase add up to three time$ as much. The trick is to stay at the site for a couple of hours and click on all the graphic buttons and explore and explore some more for variation and possibility. Lots of fun!

     I attended a Winter Workshop for Quilters' Connection and learned about Boro stitching, the old traditional Japanese method of slow stitching and repair. I decided to practice these stitches doing Sashiko which I have enjoyed sewing in the car on trips to NYC. For Boro stitching one might take a piece of fabric and pin a variety of little fabrics to it and stitch away freely, collaging in different colors, wild and free without a machine..Carol Ann Grotrian was the teacher and has samples at her site. I got sharper needles with a wide gold hole for thread, and at PurlSoho in NYC some more Sashiko navy patterned fabrics/white thread to work in the car home.Here is Sharon's:

      At the workshop I learned another way to make fabric postcards which are a delight to receive and send.In the afternoon I got further instruction on Instagram from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, tv personality and craft powerhouse. I have three accounts on Instagram and still learned from her. The important thing is to participate regularly on Instagram to remember all! My granddaughters are obsessed with Instagram, their brother says, so I am motivated and it is a good place to display art...in my case, quick urban sketches.I love versatile, friendly, talented quilters.

     Joe and I were off in NYC when kids were in Egypt and stopped at The Compleat Sculptor to get a few more  tools for wax and clay. We attended the Neue Gallery's The Self-Portrait, from Schiele to Beckmann, opening day. I loved seeing some of my  favorite paintings from private collections, before viewed only in books.I found that Lovis Corinth painted himself on July 21 every birthday. Since my big one is July 20, I hope to follow that tradition. I want to do more ink, charcoal and block prints inspired by that show.I better get busy rather than typing!

Where in the World: Wonderland's Tea Party

   Founded in 1977, the Quilters' Connection is a dynamic group of more than 400 quilters and quilt enthusiasts in the greater Boston area and as far away as Japan. Although barely a quilter, I put my name on the membership list and have found no other group so exciting to me with regard to programs and mind- stretching art work. Although I am too shy to enter a big quilt yet, I was attracted to the idea of the Quilt Challenge at the annual show.

    The 34th Annual Quilt Show will be held Friday-Sunday, June 3-5, 2011, at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown MA. Besides the completed quilts and quilted garments, each member may submit two "Where in the World" Challenge Quilts. These are not to be bigger than 20" either direction.

click to enlarge

     I made two Challenge Quilts. One is shown below at the April 5 posting. The other is this teacup. Where in the world is Wonderland, inspired by granddaughter Hannah. I first sketched a teacup at Linda Blumsack's house during beading. Then I enlarged it (via grids) on tissue. Next, I sketched the same onto posterboard and cut out the main pieces. I traced these pieces with freezer wrap, and ironed those freezer wrap templates onto fabric. I cut out the fabric, leaving 1/2 inch margin for seams. I also cut out batting and a backing fabric (the blue) the size of the teacup with seam allowance of 1/2 inch. Before cutting out the pictures of Alice and other characters, I fused them with Wonder Under to make fine cutting easier. I ironed them in place. I was ready to put the good sides together w batting, sew pillow case style and turn inside out. I stitched the opening closed. Then with invisible or colored thread I began to quilt the three layers.With embroidery needle, I further defined things.

     Both quilts are to have sleeves for hanging on the back as well as a label. I may further embellish the two.

The Lost Weekend: Perpetual Motion

Kathy, dear friend of 40 years, wrote to ask why she cannot find my recent blog postings. Only while madly sewing some blocks for Katie's Project Hope quilt did my brain catch up to this query to realize that a few days have elapsed since I have posted. Apologies. I don't want to lose my followers. :*)

Granted, there was the birthday party uno for Hannah at our house on Friday, the grandchildren sleepover, the Cambridge Art Association book group discussion on Francis Bacon at 10 the next morning, Hannah's class birthday party dos on Sunday at a gym with 25 lovely children, getting my new website loaded (not yet posted), locating a fast-to-make block pattern for the quilt, then real life. What is missing is a trip to RISD to see the Pat Steir show!

To post something quickly before I head to the wonderful Quilters' Connection tonight, I am uploading my five nautical blocks. Katie's Project Hope theme is the ocean this year. Several of us will contribute blocks made from fabrics provided and Katie will do the difficult work of turning it into a quilt. The fast and easy pattern is called Perpetual Motion. Like the ocean it is and fitting for me.